The Future of Food Chains

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

CONSUMPTION

RETAIL RESILIENCE

There was a significant change in market dynamics affecting the food supermarket sector from late 2012 onwards, a period when the country’s leading food supermarket retailers re-evaluated their property expansion requirements. Prior to this change significant emphasis had been placed on gaining additional footprint, often in the large store format – the space race. The market saw a significant reduction in demand from Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco for traditional full range supermarkets as growth in retail floor space has focused on convenience store formats (e.g. Sainsbury Local and Tesco Express), discount formats (Aldi, Lidl etc) and premium formats (Simply Food and Waitrose). This has posed questions around the role of large supermarket spaces, typically referred to as hypermarkets.